One Small Step for Womankind

SB 122, The Wage Transparency Act, was signed into law last week by Governor Bill Ritter. SB 122 protects employees who share wage and salary information with their co-workers. The lack of information, or transparency, about wages and salaries is a key obstacle to identifying and correcting pay discrimination.

And boy howdy, is there still discrimination. Women in Colorado still make only 81 cents on the dollar compared to men. The studies control for factors such as time on the job and experience, but there's still a big chunk that just isn't explained by anything other than plain old gender bias. The story for men and women of color is even sadder. Check out the Colorado Pay Equity Commission's study "Fulfilling the Promise: Closing the Pay Gap for Women and Minorities in Colorado" for more details and the facts of the matter.

Life Is Full of Flowers

One of three long-time friends who have recently resigned from their jobs came over for lunch yesterday. A long lunch on the deck with someone who is loving life, freedom, and her new perspective is quite a treat, I've got to say. A sweet surprise was that she supported my jewelry habit by buying three of my pieces. And she brought the most beautiful Gerbera daisies in a vase that looks like a picture from a magazine.

A couple of weeks ago, a wonderful, arty friend came over to give me some decorating ideas that will mesh with our new paint colors. And she brought pussywillow and other branches from her garden.

Last week, another friend invited me over to her house for a girls' night and sent me home with a vase full of forsythia branches after a wonderful night of eating and chatting.

My life is full of friends whose love is so vibrantly represented by these beautiful, living things that serve as a daily reminder of how rich life is.

Power Shift

Yesterday I got an email saying that the interview team associated with a job I applied for was "uniformly impressed by your experience and accomplishments," but I did not get the job. And neither did the other two second-round candidates. The interview team is starting over in their search process.

My initial reaction was that I couldn't possibly give up--if I wrote something compelling enough, they'd see just how passionate and smart I was and reconsider. I wrote a long email that discussed the flaws inherent in the traditional interview process and recounted all the ways the interview team had said I was a fit for the position. But I didn't click send. Thankfully. I called to talk a friend, who is also a life coach, about nonprofit issues and ended up telling her about said email.

The conversation went something like this:

Her: It sounds like you're really attached to this.
Me: YES! Even if I don't get the job, I don't want them to repeat the same process and end up in the same place.
Her: What are you going to get out of telling them they're wrong?
Me: Hmm... probably not a whole lot.
Her: What is the likelihood that they'll reconsider you as a candidate or change their hiring process?
Me: Practically nonexistent.
Her: So is that really what you want to do?
Me: No. It's not a very gracious way to end the relationship.

With a few well chosen words and questions, Laurie helped me realize that my need to be right was going to cause me to give away my power and make me look like an idiot. I deleted the entire email except the part that said thank you and good luck. My power returned. My positive energy returned.

Effective coaching packs one heck of a wallop--I had a complete change of perspective in under two minutes. Wow.

Efficacy of Interviews

Job interviews are tough. You have to spend a lot of time researching the company, preparing for the questions the interviewers might ask, getting mentally psyched up to present your "best self," and picturing yourself as a success in the job. And when you're at the interview, you have to remember to relax, smile, and be your true self. No pressure, right?

I'm wondering just how effective the traditional interview can be. One of the recruiters I worked with gave me a set of thirty behavioral interview questions (the kind that asks you to recall an example of a time of when you actually did something rather than asking how you would act in a hypothetical situation). I prepped for them all and can recall being asked such a question exactly twice.

How can someone make a decision about you based on a cover letter, resume, and two one-hour interactions that are forced and high stress? I'm surprised that even a team of interviewers can decide who to put in charge of the finances of an organization or the organization itself when the candidates are all people they barely know. Has anyone talked to even one of my ten professional references? Read my blog? Looked at the jewelry on my Etsy site? Visited my LinkedIn profile? I wonder.

I've heard some people compare the interview process to dating, but I don't know too many people who go on two dates to meet the other person's parents in their home and then decide to get married. Would it be too much to ask to spend a day in the organization? Or to go to lunch or coffee and just sit and chat for a while? Where is the relationship-building--the connection--in this process?

Corporate Philanthropy: Good or (Making Up for) Evil?

This past week, my students brought up an ethical issue that made me think twice. Is it better for for-profit corporations to sin and then repent through corporate philanthropy or to sin and not atone at all?

Perhaps it is a bit hypocritical for that local brewing company to repeatedly dump in the creek and then turn around and give millions to social causes through its foundation. But as a wise friend pointed out, the woman in charge of that foundation likely has no control over, and may not even have any knowledge of, the bad, bad things that the company does, despite the fact that she shares the same last name.

Research shows that 89% of consumers aged 18-35 would switch brands for a comparably priced product if a company showed that it was a "giving" company. Where does your loyalty lie, and do you do the research before you support a company that, on the surface, seems to be charitable?

Asking for Donations Is NOT Begging

At the Colorado Nonprofit Association's annual award luncheon today, I watched a video that moved me to tears about what nonprofits do for the Colorado community. I listened to award recipients who've worked tirelessly for decades talk about what it means to work in philanthropy. I felt good. I felt important. I felt justified in my choice to pursue nonprofit management as a career.

But having spent ten weeks talking to my students about how asking for donations is giving people a chance to match their passion about a mission with an organization's needs, I was infuriated by Lieutenant Governor Barbara O'Brien's speech. She talked about how you have to be comfortable with begging to work in nonprofit organizations. She actually used the word two or three times. She's the former executive director of the Colorado Children's Campaign, so she had a lot of street cred in that room. I heard people around me murmuring in agreement and saw them nodding when she said that.

As long as we have nonprofit leaders and government officials perpetuating that kind of thinking, we will never run our organizations efficiently. We will never maximize donations. We will never help all of the people we are capable of helping. We will never put ourselves out of business by eradicating the social injustice and oppression we fight because we limit our thinking and our possibilities. Wake up, Barbara, and stop teaching the next generation to think just like you.

Spring Is Coming!

I know, I know--we're supposed to get snow tonight. I don't care. Today it's so warm you can be outside without a jacket. The birds are gaily singing, and the mountains are the kind of blue that you could lose yourself in. On my walk this morning, I:

• Saw the first tulips coming up and little patches of green ground cover everywhere
• Heard two meadowlarks calling to each other across the field
• Smelled the first hint of something growing underneath the musty cover of leaves
• Touched the new buds on the tree branches
• Felt the joy of the new season

Hooray!

Learning from Teaching

Last week, a panel of board members was kind enough to give their time to and share their expertise with my students in the nonprofit financial management and fundraising class I teach at DU. Two weeks before that, a panel of executive directors spoke to the class. It was thrilling to see the wheels turning in the students' minds as what I had taught them in class and what they had read in their books came to life right before their eyes. It was true. It was real.

And it was confusing, too. Pitting theory against reality is always a challenge, and never is that more true than in nonprofit organizations. In class, we talk about how nonprofits need to be transparent to their constituents, donors, and the public, but few publish their annual reports or Form 990s (the IRS information return nonprofits must complete) on their websites.

I tell the students that the scarcity mentality is the death of organizations: "begging" for money, not budgeting enough money to compensate qualified personnel, thinking first about cutting expenses rather than raising more money. Then we hear that a very real worry for executive directors of organizations that have been around for a long. long time is that they will not have enough money in the bank to make payroll.

In the end, despite the mixed messages, I know that this class will make an impact on twenty lives. Some of these students will decide that nonprofit management is not for them, that they need to make an impact one person at a time by being social workers. Some will decide that, like me, they will work to change "the system" so that nonprofits will not just survive, but thrive. Maybe one will become an investment banker and live the life some of us secretly envy.

I am blessed to have the opportunity to teach them and learn from them, too. Twenty lives intertwined with mine... awesome.

E's Beads Is Open for Business

I wear the jewelry I make, give it as gifts, and, in the past, sold a few pieces at small craft fairs. Then I found Etsy, which is the online store for all things handmade. If you're a shopper, or you like to buy unique gifts, or you're fascinated by the millions of ways people create art, go there. You won't be disappointed. It's eye candy, it's colorful, and it's always changing.

And now you can buy my handmade jewelry in my online store, E's Beads, at http://www.esbeads.etsy.com/. I'll keep adding pieces, so check back often or subscribe to the RSS feed from my store. Thanks for your support!

Let Your Light Shine

Excerpted from Marianne Williamson's "Return to Love":

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small doesn't serve the world. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.